The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-24
WHERE DEAD LETTERSG0
AN INTERESTING BRANCH OF THE
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT.
Scenes in the Dead Letter Office - Men
Who Openand Women Who Examine
Letters The Carelessness of the
American People In the Catacombs.
Etc.
From the Washington Star
death from inadrertence or death from
old age" is the way that Mr.. Perry, the chief
clerk of the Dead Letter Office designates
the two classes into which all mail matter
that comes to the Office is divided That
classification was made, however, in the
course of conversation with a reporter In
official utterances more stately language is
used, and when Mr. Baird the superintent-
dent pens his annual report he divides all
mail matter that is handled by the Office
into unavailable matter and unclaimed, or
dead matter proper Matter belonging to
both classes may be regarded as dead as
soon as it is sent to the Dead-Letter Office.
but, owing to the improved methods adopt
Ell and the skill and ingenuity of those EN-
gagged in the work. DEATH in a large proper
ton of cases, proves to be only a comatose
conditional case OF SyncOpe, which skill
full application of reStoratives overcomes.
The letter then goes forward with renewed
VigOr to its destination. The unavailable
matter. OF that which dies from inadvert-
ence on the part of the sender, is that which
is held for postage (which has illegible, in
correct, or insufficient addresses, or where
the matter is placed in the mails contrary
to the postal laws and regulations, as, for
instance, destructive matter and obscene
matter Now, the other class, or dead mat
ter proper is such matter as, having reach
ed the Office of distribution, is either I'M
claimed or refused by the party addressed
or which, from its nature or because of in
definite or fictitious address, cannot be de
livered. The classification above referred
to is made after the matter reaches the
Dead-Letter Office, where it comes every
day in great sacks from all parts of the
country In the main, these bulky sacks of
hfeleSs mail matter may be said to repre-
sent the carelessness of the American people
although some portion of 1t is a witness of
the popular ignorance of the postal laws
and regulations. Whatever may be the
cause of the premature demise of the letters
they find upon their arrival at the Dead
Letter Office that they have come to a lively
receiving vault.
A SCENE IN THE OFFICE.
The sacks are shot upstairs by an elevator
into great hail with a lofty ceiling run
ming through two stories The floor Of this
hall is covered with desks. long tables and
sacks, full and empty. There is a busy
corps of clerks, some armed with sharp
glittering knives, and others bending over
ledgers. A wide gallery runs around the
hail, supported by spiral columns, and a
dark green curtain above the iron railing
shuts OF from view the clerks occupying
the gallery, who are mostly ladies. The
sacks come pilinG in, and each days mail
brings over 5000 letters and packages the
year around One hundred and four pairs
of brisk hands seize upon this mass OF
material and in a short time it is arranged,
classified. and the records made up, 50 that
all that enters the Office can be accounted
for The office looking at it from the stand
point Of eXactness and method, may be
called a mill, through which every thing
that enters must pass in a regular channel.
In fact, Superintendent Baird has devised
an ingenious representation of the method
of work in the office, which uses the idea of a
mill-hopper
There were over 100000 pieces of mail
matter received at the office last year, an in
crease of about 5 per cent over that received
during the previous year. Of this number
over 5000, 900 pieces are dead matter, pure
and simple; 3.500,000 being ordinary UNI
claimed letters. The amount of mail mat
ter that is sent to persons who, for some
reason or other, never receive it from the
post Office, as represented by the above
figures, might be used by some philOsophiC
writer fond Of figures as the basis for an
argument that the people Of the UniteI
States are largely migratory in their habits.
For instance, it is said that there are over
1000 letters received in this city each veal
which are directed TO persons whom the
carriers do not know and can find no trace
Of These letters are, OF course, advertised,
but it would seem that good proportion OF
the people who ought to read the advertised
lists never do and so the letters come to the
Dead Letter Office.
THE OPENERS DESK
Then they find their way to the openers
desk, which is long table divided into
compartments by low wooden partitions,
and before each of the compartments sits
clerk. There are IL openers at present.
Their business is to open letters, and the
majority of people will probably be inclined
TO the opinion that the position is good
deal like that occupied by the late Tantalus,
for the reason that while they are required
to open letters they are forbidden to read
letters To read letter is not only against
the regulations of the office, but is against
the law. All day long they are obliged to
sit there, thrusting their long-pointed knife
blades into one corner of the envelope and
Jlen ripping IL open, ItiuuNe lNe contents.
fold it with tEe envelope, and place it in a
pile on their desks, and then 90 on TO the
next. Perhaps, like the clerks behind the
counter in candy stores, who are Che objects
of the consuming envy of every healthy
normal child they become satiated with the
novelty of handling so many letters, and
the opening of letter is no longer accom-
panied with that thrill of curiosity that
burning desire to know its contents. which
is the common lot of ordinary humanity
But there are no women at that desk. They
are all mcn-and old men at that; Staid
sober, steady going men, fathers Of families
and patTiarchS in the church. For il is not
alone the temptations of curiosity that have
TO he encountered at the openers desk. If
that were all, women would, no doubt, have
been admitted to the fraternity long before
this.
THE LADY CLERKS.
The women already number three
fourths OF the clerical force ot the Office and
in their lofty perch in the gallery they ex-
anime the opened letters for the address OF
the writer, or some evidence upon which 60
base "A reasonable conclusion as to the origin
or destination Of the letters They are not
debarled, therefore, from the openers table
on account Of an alleged preponderance OF
female curiosity. The custom of having
men at this desk hds "A rather curious his
tory, as a star reporter ascertained in talk
ing with an old cmploye of the Office. Ii
used 10 be the practice to employ the mails
in sending forward mass OF indecent